North Korea: Kim Jong Un's sister vows to reattempt launch of spy satellite; slams UNSC

Accuses the UN Council of being discriminative and rude

 Kim Yo Jong (File) Kim Yo Jong, sister of Kim Jong Un | AP

Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un slammed the United Nations Security Council for holding a meeting to discuss the launch of North Korea's first spy satellite, which failed. She also vowed they would reattempt the satellite launch.

In a statement, Kim Yo Jong slammed the Council for discussing its satellite launch based on a request from the US and said by accepting the request, UNSC was ignoring North Korea's right to space development. “In accepting Washington's "gangster-like request" and ignoring North Korea's right to space development, the Security Council was showing it was a U.S. political appendage," Reuters reported quoting a statement from Jong.

"I am very unpleased that the UNSC so often calls to account the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's exercise of its rights as a sovereign state at the request of the US, and bitterly condemn and reject it as the most unfair and biased act of interfering in its internal affairs and violating its sovereignty," Jong said in a statement. 

The North's attempt to put its first military spy satellite into orbit last Wednesday failed as its rocket crashed off the Korean Peninsula's western coast. An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was still convened at the request of the US, Japan and other countries to discuss the launch because it had violated council resolutions banning the North from performing any launch using ballistic technology.

She accused the UN Council of being discriminative and rude because it only takes issue with the North's satellite launches while thousands of satellites launched by other countries are already operating in space. She said her country's attempt to acquire a spy satellite is a legitimate step to respond to military threats posed by the US and its allies.

“(North Korea) will continue to take proactive measures to exercise all the lawful rights of a sovereign state, including the one to a military reconnaissance satellite launch,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement.

Kim Yo Jong said the North's spy satellite will be correctly put into space orbit in the near future, but didn't say when its second launch attempt would take place.

South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday it will likely take more than several weeks for North Korea to learn the cause of the failed launch but it may attempt a second launch soon if defects aren't serious.

A military surveillance satellite is among a list of sophisticated weapons systems that Kim Jong Un has vowed to acquire amid protracted security tensions with the United States. Since the start of 2022, Kim has carried out more than 100 missile tests in what he called a warning over expanded military drills between the US and South Korea.

Experts say Kim would want to use his modernized weapons arsenal to wrest concessions from Washington and its partners in future diplomacy.

North Korea was slapped with rounds of UN sanctions over its past nuclear and missile tests and satellite launches. But the UN Security Council failed to toughen those sanctions over North Korea's recent testing activities because China and Russia, both permanent members of the UN council, blocked the US and others' attempts to do so. During the latest UN council session Friday, China and Russia again clashed with the US over the North's failed launch.

After repeated failures, North Korea placed Earth-observation satellites into orbit in 2012 and 2016, but foreign experts say there is no evidence that either satellite transmitted imagery and other data.

(With PTI inputs.)

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